The Bauchi State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDs, Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Malaria (BACATMA) in collaboration with the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), United States Government President Malaria Initiative (PMI-US) and Breakthrough Action Nigeria have completed arrangements to distribute 4.4 million insecticide treated mosquito nets to households across the state.
In this year’s exercise, BACATMA announced the adoption of technology as part of new strategies to ensure seamless distribution of the nets.
BACATMA’s executive chairman, Dr Sani Mohammed Dambam, disclosed this at a media parley in Bauchi.
He said throughout the distribution exercise, technology would be used to issue cards and the nets contrary to the previous issuance of hand cards which easily gets damaged, thus denying its holder access to the net.
Dambam explained that the use of technology would also check possible openings for sabotage, hence strengthening the process to allow the nets get to the targeted families.
“Before the net will be issued to each family, the card must be scan to identify the owner and document that the corresponding card received its net. This is an upgrade to the previously used manual process where a lots of complaints about misplacement of cards abounds,” he said.
The director, Malaria Control in BACATMA, Abubakar Musa Usman, said with the prevalence of malaria in the state being 32% and with almost 44% of children under five having fever, ITN effectiveness for malaria control and when properly implemented would contribute remarkably to the reduction malaria prevalence in the country.
